Into the Land of the Lost

by Tony Abbott

  “This isn’t right,” he murmured, swallowing his fear. He retraced his steps. “Back up….”

  Julie shot a fearful look at Max as they backed into a small space. “This isn’t the way we came.”

  “Uh-oh,” Neal mumbled. “Wrong turn.”

  “Quiet!” Eric studied the lines burned into his memory. No, he wasn’t wrong. He wasn’t.

  He traced his way back to the wall again. He pressed against it. It began to move.

  “Keeah?” he whispered.

  Then, there she was, falling into them. The wall slid away as Eric spoke her name.

  “Eric! Julie! Neal! Max!” she cried, nearly weeping with joy.

  Max bounced up and down. “My princess!”

  The sounds of battle thundered around them.

  “Party later, people,” said Julie. “Sparr is still hunting for his dumb Wasp. The ghosts need us.”

  Keeah trembled. Then she narrowed her eyes in defiance. “We must stop him!”

  They followed Max’s silken thread out of the maze. The sounds of fighting drew them farther and farther into the tangle of streets.

  Many buildings lay in ruins.

  “Oh, woe!” cried a ghost, stumbling past them.

  Eric recognized him as one of the warriors tossing rocks earlier. Now he could barely support his own weight. It was as if smoke had taken shape as a person.

  “The heroes have lost hope,” said Eric. “Just like Shago said. By the end of the day they really are no more than ghosts.”

  “They’re afraid they’ll be in Agrah-Voor forever,” Julie added.

  “They won’t be,” said Keeah, “if I can help it.”

  Carefully, they entered a small square surrounded by crooked towers. They dashed behind a pile of rubble and peeked over the top.

  The ghosts and Ninns had fought to a standstill. Now Lord Sparr towered over the old queen.

  “We are destroying your city stone by stone,” Sparr snarled. “But now I believe that one of you is hiding my Golden Wasp. If you won’t surrender it, you shall all perish!”

  “You know no living soul can harm us!” the queen said.

  The sorcerer cackled. “No living soul … yes. I’ve thought of that. Ninns! Bring in the box!”

  Eric turned to Keeah. “Is that a new weapon? A box? Filled with what?”

  “Probably not chocolate,” said Neal.

  Six Ninns dragged in a large black box. Their faces grew even redder as they huffed and puffed with the effort. Finally, they dropped it with a thud, tugged off the top, then scattered fearfully.

  “What’s inside?” Julie asked.

  On the box was strange old writing.

  “Oh, no!” Keeah gasped. “I hope it’s not …”

  “I’m afraid it is,” Max whimpered softly when he saw. “The Warriors of the Skorth!”

  “Arise, O Skorth!” Sparr boomed over the box. Then he began to mumble strange words, as if he were casting a spell.

  Suddenly, there came a scraping, clacking sound from inside the box. Then something jumped out. It clattered to the ground.

  “Holy crow!” Eric gasped. “A … bone!”

  Then another bone flew out. Then another and another. Soon the air was filled with bones jumping out of the box.

  “Stop this, Sparr!” the queen demanded. Her ghostly people crowded around her.

  The sorcerer ignored her.

  “Arise!” he said again, and the loose bones began to form a skeleton.

  Two feet assembled themselves. They attached to legs. A spine wobbled up, then two arms flung themselves from the bone pile. Fingers clattered into place. Finally, a skull flew up and sat on the neck.

  The whole thing wiggled once, clacked its jaws, and stood at attention. Sparr laughed.

  “I really don’t like when he laughs,” Neal said. “Because it’s usually not so funny.”

  “It’s not funny this time, either,” said Keeah. “We need to do something.”

  “Definitely,” Eric said, gulping. “But what?”

  Eight more skeleton warriors flew up just as the first had done. Then they pulled armor and weapons from the box.

  Some Skorth wore thick armor. Others were bareheaded, showing their bony skulls, their grinning jaws. But all had spears with blades that whirled and spun wildly.

  They stood awaiting Sparr’s command.

  “Living souls cannot harm you, dear queen?” Sparr said with a laugh. “Behold the Warriors of the Skorth! As dead as dead can be! From ancient times, their only purpose has been to destroy. If you won’t surrender the Wasp to me, you will surrender it to them!”

  With that, Sparr cast his black ball into the air.

  Zzzz! As it hung there, the orb shed light down on the ghosts.

  The queen and her soldiers shuddered once, then became still.

  “Sparr is putting them in a trance,” Keeah whispered. “Just as he did to me.”

  “That’s enough!” Eric whispered. “These ghosts need to defend themselves. I’m gonna blast that evil baseball out of the park!”

  “How?” asked Neal. “It’s twenty feet high!”

  Eric wasn’t sure. As he thought, he caught sight of a dark shape moving among the Ninns. While Sparr continued to mumble over the Skorth, Shago was sneaking around, stealing things from the Ninns.

  Eric grinned. “Shago! I knew he couldn’t disappear. Not with so many things to snitch!”

  “Yes,” said Julie. “Rope … here!”

  Instantly, the magic rope, which was still wound on Shago’s shoulder, tugged him across the ground to where the kids were.

  Floop! Shago fell down behind the mound.

  “My friends! Look what I have! A Ninn bow!”

  “Shago, we need your help,” Eric said.

  He grumbled. “I am a thief, not a hero.”

  “Here’s your chance to be both,” said Keeah.

  “I’ve got a plan,” Eric said. As he explained it, Shago’s ears flicked with delight.

  “I can do that!” he said. Then, looking both ways, he scampered out from behind the mound. A minute later, he came back with a thin carved stick. He gave it to Eric.

  Julie blinked. “Is that Queen Hazad’s cane?”

  Shago grumbled. “There are a hundred Ninns here. It’s all I could find.”

  The thief scampered off. So did Eric.

  Sparr finished mumbling his magic words.

  “Now, go, Skorth. Destroy every ghost if you have to. But find my Golden Wasp!”

  Clack! Clack! The skeletons turned and marched toward the defenseless ghosts.

  Sparr began to laugh. “This will be good —”

  “You don’t know what good is, Sparr!” Eric cried from the summit of one tower. “Shago?”

  “Up here!” Shago stood atop another tower, the Ninn bow in his hands. “My family are ghosts because of you, Sparr! Now I’ll return the favor!”

  Thwang! His flaming arrow flew at Sparr. The sorcerer leaped out of the way.

  Then Julie, Neal, Keeah, and Max started hurling stones at the Skorth.

  Finally, Eric leaped from his tower, clutching the magic rope in one hand and the queen’s cane in the other. “Rope! To that ball!” he cried.

  As the rope carried him across the square, Eric took a swing at the glowing orb.

  “He swings —” Julie shouted.

  Crash! The orb shattered into a million pieces, shooting light everywhere.

  “— and it’s outta there!” Neal whooped.

  The queen stirred. The ghosts raised their swords at the skeletons, ready to fight.

  But the orb’s final blast of light sizzled up and down the length of the queen’s cane as Eric swung it.

  “Ahh!” he screamed, dropping the cane. “It burned me!” He slid from the rope and landed in the square, clutching his hand.

  The Skorth advanced once more.

  “Stop!” the sorcerer suddenly bellowed. The whole square fell into silence. The cane lay at Sparr’s
feet. “Can it be?” he said.

  Sparr waved his hand over it. The cane turned gold and began to shrink. It sprouted wings. One end became a flat triangular head. The rest formed the stomach and legs … of a wasp.

  A wasp six inches long.

  A wasp made entirely of gold.

  “My terrible power!” Sparr shouted. “It’s you! I have you again!”

  The Golden Wasp began to buzz and whine, its wings flicking and fluttering quickly. The sorcerer pulled an iron glove from his cloak. Before the wasp could fly away, Sparr clasped his gloved hand around it.

  Suddenly, Shago yelled out, “You shall not have it!” He leaped down at Sparr, but the sorcerer flung him to the ground. Sparr snatched Shago’s leather sack and plunged the Wasp into it.

  “Skorth, destroy them. Destroy them all!” Sparr growled hoarsely, clutching the sack. “Come, my Ninns! Let us leave this place. Agrah-Voor is the Land of the Lost. Today — we have won!”

  His Ninns followed, grunting and howling. In a moment, they were gone.

  The ghosts stood in one line, the skeleton men in another. The Skorth clacked their bony jaws. Then they aimed their spinning spears — whrrr!

  “I think they plan to kill us,” Julie said, backing up.

  “I suddenly have another plan!” Neal said.

  “The one where we run real fast?” Eric asked.

  “That’s the one!” Neal said.

  “Ghosts of Agrah-Voor, to battle!” cried Queen Hazad. “These children are the future of Droon!”

  Whrrr! The Skorth lunged at the children, but the ghosts struck back, wielding the swords they’d used when they were alive. Even Queen Hazad grabbed a wooden club and swung it swiftly.

  Clang! Boom! The sounds of fighting filled the city.

  Eric felt his heart race to see the old men and women stride into battle.

  “We fight for Droon!” one ghost woman yelled out, her hands grasping an ancient sword.

  “For Droon!” the others shouted, as if it were their old battle cry.

  “Quickly!” the queen shouted to the kids. “Shago, take them to the Gate of Life. We will try to hold off the Skorth and meet you there.”

  “Are you sure the gate will open?” Keeah asked.

  “It is the only way!” the queen said. “Hurry!”

  Without another word, the four kids and Max followed Shago into the nearest alley. The thief wove a zigzag path through the narrow streets.

  Eric could tell he was following the water pipes out to the wall.

  Soon, they came to a huge wooden drawbridge, nearly as tall as the wall itself.

  “The Gate of Life,” said Shago. “But the hinges froze and the chains rusted long ago.”

  “It’s huge!” Julie said. “We’ll never get it open. Not in a million years.”

  “How about in ten minutes?” Neal asked, gazing at the wizard’s miniature hourglass. “Because that’s all we have before the sand runs out.”

  Clang! Whrrr! The sounds of battle flooded out of the narrow streets. A moment later, the Skorth charged out of an alley, grinning.

  “Man, it’s creepy when they smile,” Neal said, backing away.

  “I guess they like their job,” said Julie.

  The ghosts poured in, but the Skorth were fast. Eric turned to run, then tripped on a water pipe.

  A Skorth warrior charged at him.

  “Eric!” Keeah cried, rushing over. She pushed him away just in time.

  Clang! Splursh! The spear’s whirring blades struck one of the water pipes and burst it. A thin stream of crystal water trickled from the pipe out onto the stones. The Skorth pulled the spear away and prepared for another lunge at Eric.

  “Bad move, skull guy!” Keeah yelped. She jumped behind the skeleton, while Neal and Julie raced in and rammed him from the side.

  “Eeee!” the Skorth yelped as he tumbled over Julie and crashed to the stones.

  Eric leaped away. “Thanks, guys!”

  “Oh, man!” Neal said, sloshing in the puddle forming from the broken pipe. “I knew there would be more water. All day, it’s been nothing but — that’s it! Water! Eric, give me your socks!”

  Eric blinked at him. “That’s a weird request.”

  “GIVE ME YOUR SOCKS!” Neal cried.

  Grumbling, Eric pulled off his socks and gave them to Neal, who pulled off his own red ones and stuffed them all into the broken pipe.

  “The pressure is building up,” said Neal. “I can feel the pipe starting to rumble. Wait till you see what happens next!”

  The Skorth formed a line and charged them again.

  “Everybody, scatter!” Neal shouted, holding the pipe out like a cannon. It rumbled and quaked. It trembled and quivered.

  The Skorth clacked their jaws and spun their spears. They were almost on him. Neal waited.

  He waited. He waited some more.

  Then he tugged out the socks.

  KA-SPLURSH! A powerful burst of water blasted the skeletons back.

  Crash! Crunch! Clack! Skulls rolled off their necks. Toes and fingers clattered into the air. Arms and legs bounced to the cobblestones. Still the water blasted them, until the whole troop of skeletons clattered together in a heap of disconnected bones and skulls.

  “The Skorth are finished!” the ghosts shouted, rushing up to the children.

  Eric and his friends gasped. But it wasn’t because they had defeated the Skorth. It was because of what was happening to the ghosts.

  “They’re … changing!” Julie muttered.

  And they were.

  As Queen Hazad hobbled over to the drawbridge, her robes suddenly shimmered as bright as a flowery meadow. Color flowed back into her face and hands.

  And not only the queen’s. Every ghost’s ashen skin turned hearty again. And their clothes went from gray to bright yellow, blue, and green.

  “What’s going on?” Neal asked.

  “The day is over,” said Eric, breathing heavily. “I thought —” He broke off.

  A tear dripped down the queen’s cheek as she laid her hand on Eric’s shoulder. “The bravery you children have shown today has given us hope. We did not die in vain. Peace may come to Droon after all.”

  Keeah stepped forward. “We’ll keep fighting until our world is free,” she said.

  Neal nudged Eric. “I hate to break up this party, but we have a problem.”

  “You mean besides our wet socks?” Eric said.

  Neal held up the hourglass. There were only a few grains left in the top. “Our time is up.”

  “Heroes of Droon!” the queen cried. “Our hope gives us strength. Open the gate!”

  The ghosts took hold of the chains and pulled on them. They were strong and hearty again. They pulled with all their might.

  Errrk! The chains rattled free, the hinges squealed, and the great door lowered.

  Whoom! It thudded to the ground. The ghosts stood in awe of the opening, then gave a cheer.

  “Hooray!” they boomed. “The Gate of Life is open!”

  “You have given us the greatest gift,” the queen said to the kids. “Thanks to you, peace may come to Droon. Thanks to you, we are lost no more. Now you must go — you cannot stay.”

  Eric couldn’t say a word. He couldn’t speak. He had a lump in his throat the size of a baseball. He wanted to cry. But they needed to go.

  “Sparr has the Wasp,” Keeah said.

  “He does,” Queen Hazad said, her cheeks becoming rosy. “It could not remain hidden forever. Yet today was a victory. Knowing there are fighters for peace like you, tonight the ghosts of Droon will sleep in hope.”

  “Come,” said Max, scurrying onto the drawbridge. “We must leave. Our lives are up there.”

  Eric nodded slowly. Together, they tramped across the bridge into the swirling fog.

  Woomp! Shago swung down from the top of the wall and landed at their feet. “Julie, I believe this is yours.”

  He held out a bracelet with a charm on it.

&n
bsp; “Oh, my gosh!” Julie said, glancing at her wrist. It was bare. “How did you get that?”

  Shago grinned his whiskery grin as she took the bracelet from him and put it on. “I took it when we first met on the wall. You never knew.”

  “But I thought Sparr stole your bag?” she said.

  “I stole this back when he wasn’t looking. Neal, Eric, you’ll need your socks.” Shago handed them to the boys. “Now I must go back. The people I love are here. They need me. And I need them.”

  Keeah smiled. “We’ll see you again one day.”

  “Yes,” he said. “When I follow my family into the light of Droon. Until then, farewell!”

  In a flash, Shago swung back up to the top of the wall, where he stood with all the other heroes of Droon.

  “For Droon!” they called down.

  Whoom! The Gate of Life closed. The chains rattled for a few seconds, then became still.

  “We’d better go,” Eric said finally.

  The fog thickened around them. They stepped carefully into it.

  “I hear water,” said Julie, peering down. “There’s a pool here. I guess we jump in, right?”

  “Of course,” Neal groaned. “I mean, what would I actually do with dry socks?”

  Keeah laughed. “Hold hands, everyone!”

  Splash! As before, the instant they touched the surface, the water turned clear. A moment later, the five friends burst up through it and out onto a fresh green meadow full of colorful flowers.

  Bright sunlight touched their faces.

  Julie laughed. “We’re out. We’re alive!”

  “You are indeed!” said a familiar voice.

  It was Galen. He rode up on his pilka. “Welcome back to the world of the living.”

  “Master!” Max chirped, climbing onto Leep’s back. “Did you send those snakes packing?”

  Galen smiled. “We did. We won a small battle today.”

  Eric lowered his eyes. “We didn’t do so well. Sparr got the Wasp.”

  Galen nodded. “The battle of Droon continues. Now come. The stairs are nearby. You must go.”